Spate of attacks kill 11 across Iraq

Eleven people were killed, including six al-Qaida militants, and 15 wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Monday, police said. In Iraq’s western province of Anbar, a police force backed Sunni tribesmen clashed with al-Qaida militants at an area in east of the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, killing six al-Qaida militants and burning two of their vehicles, a provincial police source said, reported Xinhua news agency. In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen using assault rifles attacked an army checkpoint in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, the source said. During the past three days, the Iraqi army pounded Fallujah with artillery shells and mortar rounds from military bases outside the city. Anbar province has been the scene of sporadic clashes between Iraqi security forces, tribesmen and al-Qaida militants. Tensions flared in the province last week, when Iraqi police dismantled an anti-government protest site.